Morning Walk

Brett was up before dawn again this morning.  He to leave before 8:00 for mounted patrol training.  He couldn't ride, with Flash on rest and recovery mode, but he offered to help from the ground.  He wanted to get the morning chores done before he left.  I offered to do them by myself so he could sleep a bit later but he knows my back bothers me in the mornings so he did them himself.  What a guy.

By 8:30 my Aleve had kicked in and my back was feeling better.  I decided to go for a walk around the block.

The horses and donkeys were still eating breakfast.

Looking north from the back driveway gate.

 I walked down our road, took a right and walked past the house with Tortoises on one side of the street, the house where I get my hair cut  on the other, and then curved right.  The next house and lot are for sale.  These are long time residents whose kids have all grown and gone off to college.  I'm guessing they are downsizing but I really don't know.  The next house, on the corner, has been on the market for over a year.  The husband died two years ago and the wife is struggling financially.  He was self employed and the work was very up and down.  I think he left this world while it was down.  They planted a lot of trees to create privacy since they are on a corner lot in the center of our community.  They looked beautiful -- all red and gold and purple.

We are dipping into the 30s now at night so the liquidamber trees are responding. 

Taking a right at their place, I continued on past Jeanine's house (who clinics with Gayle at our place every month) and to the next corner.  There's a house for sale here as well -- the land is flat and would be perfect for horses.  Immediately to my right, as I turned, is the pit bull house.  They are vicious bit bulls (not at all like Dom's Herbie).  These have attacked adults, children and other dogs.  They've killed a couple dogs.  They scare me to death.  True to form, one of them rushed the fence barking its head off.

Halfway up the road puts me directly across from our house, with the neighbors lot in between.  That's our house and garage, their covered structure - an unfinished barn.

A bit further along the road.  Our barn behind the neighbor's tack shed and the mountains behind.  The ridge trail we sometimes ride is along the top of the ridge in the background.

On the other side of the street is another house on the market.  This one was built by a group of builders who snapped up a bunch of lots when the market up here was hot.  They built cookie-cutter houses and before they could be sold, the market crashed.  Some of them have renters, some are vacant, and this one never passed final inspection.  I think it is, or was, in foreclosure.

Continuing up the hill, I passed the adobe house so named because it is one of the earliest homes on the ranch.  It is a true adobe house, with thick walls and no heating system other than a wood fire.  In the winter I can see smoke coming from their chimney early in the morning as they revive the banked fire from the night before.  Their property is decorated in an eclectic manner with old farm implements, a wagon, bicycles, a teepee and other odd bits scattered around.

After rounding the corner by their place, I went down the steep hill and then down our road.  Back home again. 

As I was getting ready to go down the hill and spend the day with Camille, Brett returned home.  He drove all the way out to the training site, a good 50 miles each way, and no one was there.  He called the lieutenant when he got there only to be told that they had cancelled the training.  So, that was 100 miles of gas and time down the drain. 

I got home late this afternoon, achy and tired.  Brett had been killing himself cutting the weeds that are springing up everywhere.  I suggested we go out to dinner.  I'm too tired to cook and he's too tired to do dishes. 

If it seems like there are a lot of homes for sale up here, it's because there are.  The properties on our ranch soared to the top of the housing bubble and when it popped, a lot people were in serious trouble.  Lots of foreclosures, lots of short sales, lots of deals in paradise.